Google Nexus 5

Nice Box Presentation (my box opening tool on the side aka Hercules)

 I know it has been awhile for me to post things, but with Christmas shopping out of the way, PS4/Xbox One releases have come and gone and there were some personal issues within life that always like to get at you when you least expect it, I have finally been able to put out my review of my Nexus 5 smartphone by Google. So with out further delay, here is the Google Nexus 5.

 

     So, I cannot stress this enough, this phone feels great and is very light for it being a 5 inch phone. Off of first impressions, this phone is very comfortable and light. Of course this phone is being shipped with Android 4.4 KitKat and right now most Nexus 5 owners have KitKat 4.4.2 (I have it on my Nexus 7 but not Nexus 5 yet). And I don't want to talk to much about 4.4 KitKat, but you can tell Google is on to something here and I like the way it looks on the phone for that overall appeal. Anyway, the Nexus 5 is everything you love about Android phones with not all that extra crap on there that carriers and manufacturers put on there. It felt good opening up the phone and not see AT&T blasted throughout the phone or a very lag-tastic Samsung start-up screen. What I got was pulsating Google logo and setup screen, and then after that(after the set-up) you turn it off then on again and the same thing occurs but right to the phone. The process to go from full off to home screen takes about 10-15 seconds, its beautiful. My Galaxy Note 2 took about 30-35 seconds and my Droid about 25-30 seconds.

     The design of the phone is very nice and comfortable to hold. The back is coated in a nice soft gripping rubber like material and he front is protected by Gorilla Glass 3. The phone doesn't feel to big in the hand, its almost like 4.9" or 5.0" is the sweet spot for phones. if you are coming from and iPhone, you are going to be pleased with the screen and the extra real estate. If you are coming from something else, this will either be right at home for you and hit that sweet spot again or it will just a shade under what you are used to. The camera on the back is a small circle with and LED flash under it, and just for those who love cell phone cameras or what to become the next great photographer with this phone, please look elsewhere. The camera is not bad.....but then again its not good either. I know its a 8 megapixel camera (8 MP), but this camera is just missing the full use of those 8 megapixels somewhere. I can't put my finger on it, but its just missing something. Again, the phone is light, about 4.60 ounces light and I cannot stress that enough. The way the phone is, it just feels so good.

   The display of the phone is NOOICE! (shot out to Key & Peele) Sorry if you are not in the know, it means its a nice screen, about 445 ppi to be exact. It is a 1080 x 1920 inch display that can produce just about 16 million colors on screen. What that mean to you is that the colors pop and the sound that goes with those beautiful colors just don't add up. The speaker grill which is located at the bottom of the screen, is ok and its loud, until you go out into public and realize how crappy your speakers really are. But for the price of a Nexus 5, you can't complain. This is a top of the line phone with specs to match. On board is 4G LTE, 16/32 Gb of storage (no add on), 2 Gb of RAM, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (yes AC is on board and if you have it...it is screaming fast) wifi, Qualcomm MSM8974 Snapdragon 800 processor, Quad-core 2.3 GHz Krait 400, Adreno 330, wireless charging (Qi standard) and more. All of that for $349 (16Gb) or $399 (32GB).....oh and the best part, NO CONTRACT!! They have these phones on contract but why would you do that?

   Anyone that knows me knows I hate contracts and think they are the worst things for us as people to buy when there are so many alternatives. 2 years with the same phone and plan? I can't do it. Give me a service that I can pay when I want and have more control over and get the same benefits as others with LTE (or better with unlimited this and that) for less money. Sign me up! I think that is why the Nexus community loves Nexuses so much, high end phones with low end prices and I agree, it just makes sense. The one bad thing I will say about this phone other than the camera is the battery life. The battery life on this phone is not good at all. When I mean not good, I mean maybe a recharge throughout the day.....and that's everyday. The battery already is a non-removable Li-Po 2300 mAh battery, and if you know anything about batteries, you know that is not that good. However, if you are thinking about getting this phone, don't let that scare you off, because depending on what time you start your day and what time you end it, the battery life of the phone may be just good enough for what you do. For what I do, the battery life is just that, good enough. Again, its not a Droid Maxx or an HTC One or an iPhone as far as battery life goes, but it is good enough for me and it may be for you as well.

     There are always plus and minuses when it comes to new phones and even new software/OS'. This phone has both. Its good because it is a top of the line phone without all the gimmicks (looking at you Samsung and look away SMH) and bloatware, its just straight phone and all its simplicity. However with that high praise comes the other factor that sucks, not everything you download or want to download may not be compatible. Example, my Time Warner Cable app (or TWC app) didn't work on my Nexus 5 for about 2 weeks. That's because, TWC had not optimized their app for Android 4.4 and because of that, I was unable to watch TV on my phone for a few weeks. As for other things like games, some of them just don't work at all and will not work like Amazing Alex. Not a big deal to some and not even to me, but there are those out there that play this game and love it but can' play it on this phone (as of yet). This is also one of the big differences between iOS and Android as well. Amazing Alex works on iPhone/iPod and also on iPad/iPad Mini. I know some of you may say who cares, but for some people that is everything. If this doesn't work, what else doesn't work? I haven't found anything else but there are some things on Android  that are like that though.

     All of that other stuff aside, I have had this phone for over a month ( I ordered it the day it was available) and all of the tech talk and things like that aside, this phone is really good. One of my favorite phones of the year, if not top 3. When talking to people, the calls sound good, and dialing people has never been easier. When people call in and they are not in your contact list, Google finds out who it is and puts picture to the number, its really cool. I got a call back from the Best Buy headquarters and the picture that popped up the Best Buy ticket. It was really cool. Other feature of the phone that I like is the almost Google Now feature like on the Motorola Moto X. Key word there was "almost". The Moto X works when the screen is off when you say the phrase "OK Google". The Nexus 5 is just like that but it only works from the home screen. Its a really cool feature and Google Now works like a charm. I hate to hear people say its way better than Siri or Siri is way better. Look people they have two different functions. Just because you talk to the does not mean they do the same thing. Siri is real good at hands off activity. For example, ask Siri to remind you "watch Scandal at 10pm on Thursday". She confirms what you ask and then prompts you to reply. All you have to do is say yes and there it is. One button operation. For those of you who do not have a Nexus 5 but use Google Now, you know it is a few button presses and then confirm. But on a Nexus 5 (from the home screen) same command, "remind me to watch Scandal at 10pm on Thursday" and then it wants you to confirm it, but right there is where you have to hit the remind me at this time button at the bottom to confirm and then it saves. For some that is not bad, but you HAVE to be at the home screen to work that or in the search. With Siri you just hold the home button, phone off or on. The music commands on both are worlds apart, but Android is coming around. When trying to navigate with Google now while talking with music playing, Google now was unresponsive. The best thing however about listening to music on your Nexus 5, is when you look at the beautiful full screen music art on the lock screen.


     What else can I tell you about this phone? I know other writers out there may tell you how something is but only after a few days of messing with something. A good example is a Galaxy Note 2, a Galaxy S4 (my buddy knows lol sorry for your phone bro) or a Nexus 7 2012 edition. Those phones and tablets are awesome for the first few weeks and that is how these reviewers tell it. But most of these guys or some girls, don't use their device longer than the few days that they have it, that would be crazy. I write about these things because I live with these things and use them everyday and know that after a few months (some after the first 30 days) the performance starts to dip a little and then a lot. My Note 2 started to crawl after 2 months of use and for a flagship phone, to me that is unacceptable. I usually don't bash a lot of good tech, but my experience with Samsung products have been very lackluster experiences. But that is neither here nor there and this phone, the Nexus 5 made by Google and LG, is a phone any android user would love for years to come. My final thoughts for this phone after using it non-stop for a little over a month, this phone is a great piece tech goodness. If you are looking for a phone and want to pass on contracts but want a high end phone, go with this one. I use this phone with Straight Talk and pay way less than what my buddy pays for his S4 (in terms of cost of phone, monthly data/minutes, and still have updates and Android goodies before him) and his contract. Trust me I am not bashing him, I hope he would know that, I am just simply telling all you out there that if you want a high end phone, you don't have to pay those outrageous prices and don't have to settle for an "Okay" phone in the process. If I have enlightened you as a reader, then my job is done and I would hope you all got something out of it about the phone or contracts in general. But if you want to know more about the phone or anything else I write/talk about hit me up on:

PSN: The_D_O_P_E_69
XBL: TitosTech
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Google+Carlos Washington




    

 

HP Chromebook 11

If you think the concept of Chromebooks is pointless or if you think they won't last long, boy are you wrong, twice. While it may have it's shot comings, this little slice of heaven is for those who want to be productive but without breaking the bank. This is my review of the HP Chromebook 11.

So this is the HP Chromebook 11.  This Chromebook was made by HP and Google, so you will see HP build with Google style and flare. I spent about a week with this machine, everyday and every night. This chronicles my week with the HP Chromebook 11. When you first get this, it comes in a nice size brown box. Once you open it, you are welcomed with a bright white case with a blue wrapped paper down the center (I think the wrapped paper goes with the color of your Chromebook. Mine is the white and blue model). On the inside of that is a nicely placed Chromebook and charger and Chromebook information. The presentation is very nice and clean. It makes you feel as if your getting something in high end but for a fraction of the cost. 

After you take out the Chromebook from the box, you are going  to want to plug your charger to it. Side note. The charger is your standard everyday micro USB charger. So that means that one charger can charge your Chromebook, your smartphone and anything else that uses a micro USB charging port (and there are a ton of them). So no more carrying like nine chargers for various items you carry. Alright, so back to the Chromebook. Once you charge it up, it seriously is three simple steps to get you right on the internet and surfing the web. After you put in your WiFi information (oh by the way, this is WiFi only and a lot of things can't be done on this Chromebook without the internet, but more on that later) you are greeted with an update that will be downloaded to your Chromebook.

I know I said it was three easy steps, but this is the longest of them. It says the wait is about five minutes but it was slightly longer than that. But it was not a big deal, just find yourself something else to do for about ten to fifteen minutes, just to be safe. Once you return to your Chromebook, you will need to sign in with your Google information or if you don't have any, I believe you can create one right then and there. After that, your welcomed to your new Chromebook. The specs for the device are here, just scroll to the bottom.

these are some of the offline apps like gmail, kindle, and docs

Once you are on your way, the Chromebook acts just like a real laptop, but with a slight twist, there is nothing to do with Windows or Mac on this Chromebook. So if you get this expecting to be able to use your same Windows 7/8 settings or things here or Mac OSX with Mavericks, think again because this is all Google services. That is not really a bad thing if you are deep into Google's offerings like with their Android Smartphone OS. Most of the things you find on your smartphone that have to do with Google, you will find here. One of the biggest complaints people have with the point of a Chromebook is that it only works while online. While that may be true, there are new offerings all the time in the Chrome App Store for applications to work offline. Honestly, today there are a ton of places out there that offer free WiFi and rather your in a big city or a little one, most fast food places have it and so tons of coffee shops. A lot of people like to do their work outside of the office and house anyway, so this may be something that fits right up their alley. So what do you do first? Well first off you want to go and take advantage of Google Music's 60 days free of all access and then the 100 GB of free Google Drive Cloud Storage for 2 years which is also free. Which is awesome. Just about 90% of my photos and home movies are in Google Drive. So when the 2 years are up, its only like $5 a month after that and Google has some crazy cloud storage space; like up to 16 TB (yes terabyte) of space for $799 a month. So you get an idea of how important storage is to them.

After you do that, and actually takes less time than the software update, you just go and do the normal things you do when you surf the web. You can still download pictures to you Chromebook. Run out of space? Attach a flash drive to a portable hard drive to it. It will run things off of it or save them to it. But the thing they really want you to do, is to use that cloud storage. So Google Drive is a Chromebooks best friend. There is a file system on a Chromebook and that's another thing I like (first thing was the price). And that is basically the run down for this Chromebook. Now on to how I use it and the likes and dis likes.

This is where this Chromebook becomes hit and miss. Any and everything you have or tend to have will have its goods and bad's and this is no different. This however is what are you willing to deal with on a day to day basis. For me, I actually like this Chromebook. It has a little style and flare and it actually feels really solid. I am a fan of chicklet type keyboards, and while this is not it, it does make the noise's that I like when I type because I like to know (hear) how much work I am doing (its just one of those things). What stinks, is this touch pad! The screen is bright, but you get the idea it could be brighter and it looks weird in the day time. Did I mention this touch pad stinks!! It stinks because the touch pad is emotional, its way to sensitive. The finger and swipe gestures are almost pointless. And this is where that "what you are willing to deal with" kicks in because, while you can plug in a mouse, how often do to you want to keep attaching it to your Chromebook, and if you use a Bluetooth mouse, that will help drain your battery just a bit more.

got it to play .mkv but no sound

a little bit of sound for you all

You have to also know coming in what this machine is capable of doing and not doing. You have to know that when you video chat through Google Hangouts (yes people no Skype or Face Time here), you just have to be aware that the camera in this machine is really, really poor. Like it's VGA poor. Like VGA in a dark room and can not sense the light poor. The rest of the design is great. I like the white with the blue accent and blue foot prints at the bottom. My favorite color is red, but when I get Android things or Chrome things, I like to get blue or blue cases and things like that.What is also nice about this model is that there are four other colors: white with red, white with green, white with yellow, and an all black model. If you understand what this machine is for, then I believe you will like it, maybe not love it, but like it for sure. There is no USB 3.0 on here, just 2 USB 2.0 ports on here. The machine plays movies (in .avi format not so much, but .mkv i got working but with no sound) in .mp4 and plays music without a hitch. Good thing I have music in my Play Music Storage so I just basically ran music from there and let the WiFi do all the heavy lifting. Also, The sound is built right under the keyboard and it sounds great, nice and loud. Other than the charging port (which you can use your cell phones charger) and the headphone jack and 2 USB ports on the side, that is all the connections you get and they are all on the left side of the machine.The right, front and the back, nothing.

In the end, this machine is not for me, however it might be for you and here is why. If my school used any other format than Microsoft Word, this machine would be a steal. Seriously. I find that when I do school work in Google Docs, its fine it looks great and all that but, when I save it as a word document and then view it in Word, the formatting is off just enough to make me lose points every week and that's just dumb. I could just edit it in Word and whatnot, but then that's just to much extra work and not everyone has the time for that. The point of this machine is to make it convenient for you to be productive and not counter productive. So because of that, I will have to pass and that IS the only reason. I guess I could deal with the track pad and the screen brightness and again those are nit pick items. The HP Chromebook 11 is really a nice computer. If your in school, this is perfect for it. If your a photographer or a musician, this is not for you unless you just want to view your work on the go or via USB, but then if that is the case you could just use a iPad or a another tablet, you actually can do more with those, in my honest opinion (or a regular laptop). But for $279.99 and the biggest thing here is school or second/third computer for your house or the kids (flash games like Y8.com and clubpenguin.com, seem to work well) than this thing is right up everyone's alley. If you just want to checkout your email or surf the web or do some shopping on Amazon or eBay or even write a review like I did here through Google's services, than it's great for that as well. Anything else, please look elsewhere and don't be upset if you get one and then complain about what it can't do.

HP Chromebook 11 is something I would recommend to others

Comming Soon: review of AOC i2367Fh full HD 23" LED monitor; The Fusion Tournement Controller for PS3; The iPhone 5s; and more

I am also going to revisit some great PS3 memories as we get ready for the PS4 this November.

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this is fast it loads up from sleep